Self-Deception All Around

There was a recent survey that found that most Arab Israelis are ok with Israel being a Jewish state, just not a Zionist one. The difference in their minds, as explained in Ha'aretz, goes like this:

Israeli Arabs believe that a Jewish state is a state in which most of the citizens are Jewish, whereas a Zionist state is a state for the Jewish people from around the world.

"For Zionists, one of the goals Israel should set itself is maintaining its Jewish majority at all costs," says Smooha. "That is a Zionist goal, and includes settlement in the Jewish sense and the ingathering of exiles by means of the Law of Return. But the Arabs are not willing to accept this situation in perpetuity."

This seems to mean that unlike many Arabs who call themselves Palestinians and want the Jewish state to disappear immediately if not sooner, 70% of Israeli Arabs don't mind there being a Jewish state, as long as it is temporary. That is, as long as Israel is in danger of demographic demise, these Arabs are happy to call themselves Israeli citizens. Great.

Now let's check the Jewish perspective:

The survey also found that 75 percent of the Jewish respondents agreed with the statement, "Israeli Arabs have the right to live here as equal citizens with full rights." Some 80 percent of the Jewish respondents, however, said that an Israel Arab who defines himself as "a Palestinian Arab in Israel cannot be loyal to the state and its laws."

So most Jews, not surprisingly, are wont to suspect any Arab who insists on keeping a "Palestinian" identity despite living in Israel, because, of course, so many Palestinians reject the Jewish state. But the same Jews are fine with Arabs who are willing to call themselves Israelis, because presumably their acceptance of that title implies acceptance of Israel itself with her goals and prerogatives.

I'll bet the Jews taking their section of this survey weren't told about the results to the Arab section before they answered...